Chapter 433 Bottom line of regular season, outlook for playoffs
Wang Zelin then played the entire third quarter. Among the main lineup, except for Lillard who took a break, the other four players also played the entire quarter.
At the end of this quarter, it was 84:61, which basically declared the Heat's death sentence.
Of course, the other party may not think so.
The game restarted in the fourth quarter, and the Heat's offensive point was still James. Today, James was in a hot state. After three quarters, he had scored 25 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Not to mention surprises, he had another near triple-double after tonight.
However, the only reliable player for the Heat is James.
Bosh, the other member of the Big Three, was in average condition today. He played hard in the paint several times but didn't gain much.
For the Trail Blazers, Wang Zelin will continue to play the main offense. Since he said he would take over the game, he will definitely fulfill his promise.
As the game progressed, it was discovered that no matter what, his teammates could not score, James had no choice but to focus on the main goal. And every time he finally succeeded in attacking, the Heat fans who originally thought they saw hope, regrettably found that the opposite team
Trail Blazers No. 36 can always respond quickly in the next round.
At the end of the game, the Trail Blazers scored 26 points in a single quarter and the Heat scored 22 points in a single quarter. Not only did the two sides fail to narrow the point difference in the last quarter, but the Heat also lost by 10 points.
In the end, 110:83, the Trail Blazers beat their opponents by 27 points in an away game.
Tonight, the score difference between the two sides is really too great!
Although everyone knows that the Heat are missing one of their generals, Wade, they still have James and Bosh on the court after all. Before the game, they thought that even if the Heat lost, they would not lose much.
Unexpectedly...
And judging from some details of tonight's game, if the two sides really meet in the finals, I'm afraid the Trail Blazers will have a greater chance of winning.
There is no other reason. The strongest point of the Heat's offense is undoubtedly James and Wade on the outside. The two are extremely good at breaking through, and after breaking through, passing the ball to their teammates is also a common game style of the two.
However, the Blazers' strongest point happens to be the inside line, the seven-foot giant Wang Zelin who is extremely defensive.
This kind of opponent is exactly what breakthrough masters least want to see.
well, let's get back to business.
After their visit to Miami and their 56th victory of the season, the Trail Blazers returned to Portland after a night's rest.
The next three games will all be at home, which is very beneficial to them.
In terms of opponents, the opponents in the next three games are the Magic, Thunder and Bulls respectively.
The Magic are still the same as before, just playing bad tricks. They are currently ranked third from the bottom in the Western Conference and have not even won more than 20 games.
As for the next two opponents, the Thunder defeated the Bulls, although they were seeded teams in the playoffs in their respective divisions, the two teams had the same tragedy.
Each side has a core player missing due to injury, and both are playmakers at the No. 1 position. A team without its core No. 1 position is like a car without a powerful engine, although there are other engines that can.
It replaced it for a while, but the overall impact on the car and the driver's operating experience were very bad.
Therefore, Wang Zelin and his teammates are full of confidence for the next three games.
Of course, this is also true.
On March 20, the Trail Blazers welcomed the Magic at home.
The biggest highlight of this game, apart from the front office between Wang Zelin and Oladipo before the game and several three-point battles between Oladipo and Lillard during the game, looking at the whole game, it is basically a one-sided momentum.
In this game, the Trail Blazers unexpectedly won.
In the subsequent games against the Thunder on the 22nd and the Bulls on the 24th, although both sides showed an anxious situation in the first half, once in the third quarter, Wang Zelin and his teammates habitually set off a wave of offensive climax.
Neither the Thunder nor the Bulls can stop their offensive.
3 consecutive home wins!
At the same time, the Trail Blazers also won their longest nine-game winning streak since February. As long as they win one more game, the Trail Blazers can win their third 10-game winning streak of the season...
What is this concept?
At least this season, no team has won three 10-game winning streaks. Let alone three 10-game winning streaks, even two teams with more than 10 consecutive wins are very few in the league.
.
Do Wang Zelin and the others want to get it?
Of course I do!
If you say you don't want to, you are definitely pretending to be aloof.
But ask yourself, it’s a bit difficult to win 10 consecutive games.
After sending away the Bulls at home, the Trail Blazers only have the last four games left in March. If you want to rank the difficulty of these four games, the most difficult one is undoubtedly No. 25 and the Grizzlies.
Contest.
Because this game is not only an away game, but also a back-to-back game!
And everyone knows that playing ball with a grizzly bear is a terrible feeling from the inside out, from the mind to the body.
It's not a mistake to be timid before the game, but Wang Zhilin did find that the state of his teammates was obviously different from previous games before the game.
In fact, he is not like this.
Alas, let’s take it one step at a time.
…
…
In the end, not long after winning a 9-game winning streak, the Trail Blazers still failed to win their 10th consecutive game.
They lost to the Grizzlies.
This defeat was entirely due to the overall state of the Blazers. The Grizzlies were led into a defensive whirlpool like a swamp, and they couldn't extricate themselves!
After this battle, the regular season battle between the Trail Blazers and the Grizzlies was 2:2, and the two teams were tied. If they want to meet the Grizzlies again, they have to wait until the playoffs.
After scoring twice and losing to the Grizzlies on the road again, the media was not in a hurry to badmouth the Trail Blazers.
Everyone knows that since the Grizzlies are known as the regular season troublemakers, they are naturally not ordinary people. What's more, the Grizzlies are not that weak in the first place. I don't know how many strong teams have failed in Memphis this season.
Ultimately, there are too many uncontrollable factors in an 82-game regular season, which is why weak teams often defeat strong teams in upsets.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Only in the best-of-seven games of the playoffs, the chance of such an unexpected occurrence will be much smaller.
This is why the occurrence of black eight, black seven, or even black six in NBA history will cause a huge sensation.
After losing to the Grizzlies, the Trail Blazers had another strong three-game winning streak.
After first defeating the Lakers at Staples, they then defeated the Suns and Pelicans at home.
…
Up to now, after the March game is completely over, the Trail Blazers have already exceeded 60 regular season wins, achieving an impressive record of 62 wins and 13 losses, and are the first team in the league to exceed 60 wins.
If nothing else, the 2013~2014 regular season championship will definitely belong to Portland!
Now, it is time to put the prospects and arrangements for the April schedule on the agenda.
In the last half-month schedule from April 1st to April 16th, the Trail Blazers still need to play 7 games before they can officially declare the end of the 2013~2014 regular season schedule.
In these last 7 games, there are many challenges from strong teams. No, it should be said that more than 80% of the next opponents are strong teams.
First of all, on the 1st, Wang Zelin and the others need to go to Indiana to challenge the Pacers, the top team in the Eastern Conference. After returning home to play the Jazz on the 4th, the next three consecutive away opponents are the Warriors, Clippers and Mosaic. Finally, the Cavaliers and
Lakers.
Whenever Wang Zelin thinks that 5 of the next 7 opponents are at the playoff level, he feels a faint sadness in his heart.
Who arranged this schedule? It’s too outrageous.
After complaining hard in his heart, he also understood that the team was now paying for the loose arrangements at the beginning of the season.
Once you understand, you have to learn to make trade-offs.
Both Wang Zelin and the coaching staff know very well that even if they win all the next seven games, the Trail Blazers' final record will only be fixed at 69 wins, and they will completely miss 70 wins.
Of course, this does not mean that 69 wins is too weak. On the contrary, being able to win 69 games in the regular season is already very strong.
Looking at NBA history, the only teams that can achieve 69 wins in the regular season are the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971-1972 season and the Chicago Bulls in the 1999-1997 season.
Just these two!
But there is a 72-win Bulls standing above these two teams!
To be honest, if after winning 69 games, only the Trail Blazers are temporarily ranked second in history after the Bulls with 72 wins, then Wang Zelin's interest may be greater.
But the problem is, there are already two teams ahead of them that have won 69 games in the regular season. If they squeeze in again, Wang Zelin always feels awkward and cheap.
If players and fans from other teams knew Wang Zelin's state of mind at this time, they would probably want to spit in his face.
Are you pretending to be crazy?
Okay, it's a bit pretentious.
But Wang Zelin believes that he has the strength and capital.
But this is not all a question of pretending or not, but that they must start preparing for the next playoffs.
Anyway, San Antonio, currently ranked second in the league, has only 59 wins, and their remaining games are the same as the Trail Blazers, 7 games.
This means that even in the worst case scenario, the Trail Blazers only need to win 5 of the next 7 games to lead the league with a record of 67 wins and 15 losses!
Maybe it won’t take 5 games, but 3 to 4 games will be enough.
On the morning of the 31st, Wang Zelin got up early.
After breakfast and finishing morning practice, Wang Zelin arrived at the team headquarters on time at 10 a.m.
We are about to enter the last regular season game month. At the request of the management, the entire team will hold a targeted meeting today.
In today's meeting, a common topic was brought up by coach Terry Stotts:
Take turns!
…
At present, the regular season championship basically belongs to the Trail Blazers, which is also the unanimous consensus of the outside world.
Then, preparing for the playoffs in half a month has become the top priority.
In addition to talking about rest, team general manager Nel Orsi also put forward a precondition at the meeting.
Win at least 5 regular season games to ensure the team securely wins the regular season championship.
Everyone expressed their understanding of the team management’s emphasis.
Regardless of the Trail Blazers' fashion, although they have had a championship banner, compared to many teams in the league, they are still richer.
But this "wider margin" is only compared with some ordinary teams. Compared with some teams with famous players, it still seems too shabby.
The only championship during the Bill Walton era, the only 63-19 regular season championship during the Glider Drexler era in the 1990s...
The above are the only things in the history of the Portland Trail Blazers that they can use to talk to other teams.
Then, it was gone!
Winning 5 out of 7 games and securing the regular season championship has become the bottom line given to the team by team owner Paul Ayton at the meeting.
In the conference room.
Wang Zelin raised his hand and attracted everyone's attention.
Some were envious, some were grateful, some were amazed...the looks were different, but there was no jealousy.
After all, everyone in the conference room is fighting for a team, and only if the Trail Blazers perform better will it be more beneficial to them.
"I don't care about other teams. I can't lose the game against the Houston Mosaics on the 13th!"
Under the gaze of Chinese, Wang Zelin made his only request.
"Well……"
"Of course, I have disliked those grandsons for a long time."
"Wang, don't worry, we will definitely kill the Houstonians this season!"
"..."
en, although I don’t know why the Mosaic team was recorded in Wang Zelin’s notebook for so long, but neither Lillard and others as teammates, nor Terry Stotts and others asked him the reason.
It can be said that if Wang Zelin was not selected in the 2012 draft, the Trail Blazers would never be as glamorous as they are today.
From the appeal of ticket sales to the improvement of the team's overall strength, the changes caused by Wang Zelin's arrival in the past two seasons are obvious to everyone.
As early as the trade deadline of this season was coming to an end, team owner Paul Allen said publicly: Regardless of whether the Trail Blazers can win the championship this season, he is definitely not for sale to the team.
Whether it was to buy favors or for other reasons. After these words fell into the ears of Wang Zelin and other teammates, they couldn't help but be moved and shocked.